Quote from: Someone_2 on January 20, 2020, 01:04:09 AM

Went and did research and educated myself from some of the replies. The actual HD it was on I think crashed. It was a PATA drive 200 GB. Mechanical failure roughly, the voice coil went bad and the spindle motor couldn't sync anymore and get the platters to speed. I 'might' still have the drive but I'm not sure. So the idea of retrieving the wallet.dat file is most likely impossible going that route and method. I had deleted it too but I know if a file is not overwritten it can be recovered. But hence the issue with the spindle motor.

Unless you want to try sending it to some sort of data forensics lab, then basically your quest is over.

Quote

So I kept reading and researching. From what I read, I need the UUID/wallet ID number, from that I can retrieve a copy of the wallet.dat file from the blockchain itself.

As far as Bitcoin-qt/Bitcoin Core is concerned, there is no such thing as a UUID/wallet ID number... and you certainly can not retrieve a copy of the wallet.dat from the blockchain itself. I'm not sure what you have been reading, but this information is incorrect.

A "wallet.dat" is simply a Berkeley Database data file... it (normally) contains a number of private keys (and in more recent "HD" wallets, it will contain a "seed") and information relating to those private keys (that is to say the matching public keys and derived addresses and transaction history relating to these.

The private keys are NOT stored in the blockchain in any shape or form. You absolutely can NOT recover these if your copy of the wallet.dat is gone.

Quote

From there I need at least some of the 12 or 24 word passphrase(?). I found out about btcrecovery.py,may work if I can get enough of the word passphrase.

Again, this is incorrect. 12 or 24 word recovery phrases (aka "seed mnemonics") were generally introduced to wallets following the BIP39 standard. BIP39 was first proposed: 2013-09-10. It certainly wasn't around int he first year of Bitcoin as you believe you were operating.

In any case, even today, Bitcoin Core does NOT adhere to this standard, so there is NO 12/24 word recovery phrase that you can use to recover your wallet.dat. If you have/had a 12/24 word recovery phrase, then it is for a completely different wallet.

The python-based "btcrecover" can be used (amongst other things) to try and brute force a forgotten password from a wallet.dat that had a password set... it can also be used to discover a missing word or two of a 12/24 word recovery phrase (assuming you have other information like an address that was generated from the seed derived from the 12/24 word phrase). It will NOT be useful to recover a wallet.dat.

Quote

I've discovered the blockchain explorer at blockchain.info which is now apparently blockchain.com. Is there a way I can identify a wallet by when it was mined to and or where it was mined at by IP address? I do know who my ISP was back then, where I was, how long I mined and when and so on. I could narrow down the wallet from the blockchain that way. Metadata from the transactions.

None of that info will be useful to you. Your wallet is NOT stored on the blockchain... there is nothing to narrow down. Transactions contain very little metadata, and certainly nothing that identifies what wallet it came from.

Quote

I'm realizing that without the wallet.dat file I'm dead in the water.

Correct.

Quote

I do remember there was a long string of words that to me seemed random, I was puzzled how it was a password or passphrase. I do remember setting up a password for an account though, and I remember what that one is. THere was a bunch of things I didn't understand, what a UUID or wallet ID was one of them.

Again, you're talking about UUID and/or Wallet IDs and/or "accounts"... these are NOT concepts that relate to Bitcoin-qt/Bitcoin Core.

You're either referencing wallet IDs from blockchain.info (now blockchain.com) or some other web-based wallet... impossible to know which without having the actual ID... If you had an account or id or something, then I am fairly certain that you were NOT using Bitcoin-qt/Bitcoin Core.

Have you looked through old emails to see if you have anything from Blockchain.info? One of those might contain a wallet id number. Or you can try options here: https://login.blockchain.com/#/help (if you have access to old email accounts originally used with blockchain.info)